It’s the second of the three Baltic countries in the list now, and one of my favourite Eurovision countries – Estonia. They have put in a string of high quality, classy entries recently and their national final, Eesti Laul, arguably shows the best quality and broadest range of musical styles of any national final . This year is no exception with a dark, broody and very high class entry, sung by Jüri Pootsmann and written by Stig Rästa, the writer and co-singer of last year’s Estonian entry. That was my favourite song from last year, and this is one of my favourites this year!
Estonia deservedly topped the equivalent preview countdown last year – in the actual final, they couldn’t quite match those heights, but still finished a credible 7th. I think they had their chances killed somewhat by the show’s producers as they put them on very early in the running order. This year’s winner of their national final has the same dark, brooding elements that last year’s had, and you can tell it’s been written by Stig. Jüri puts in a great performance, and a deeper voice you will not find in this year’s contest! I also love the performance and staging in the video (which is actually the national final performance), especially during the chorus.
Estonia has put in some cracking songs, though ironically their only win to date was with one of their weakest songs (and one of my least favourite Eurovision winners)! They had a rouugh patch in the latter part of the 2000s with very few qualifications to the final, but they’ve refound their early form when they made the top 10 several times in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I feel a bit disappointed this didn’t finish in the top 10 of this preview countdown, as I certainly think it deserves to, nonetheless, I think this has a strong chance of making the final, even in the tougher semi-final 1 that it finds itself in.
Whatever happens, we’ll be seeing Estonia next year, as they have already confirmed their participation in Eurovision 2017!
Live at Eurovision in Concert in Amsterdam:
Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest:
First entered: 1994
Appearances (excluding this year): 21
Best result: Winner 2001
Last year’s result: 7th